Sales pitch, lyrics and some further information about our project
The purpose of the video is to show parts of the intellectual history of management in a way easy to interpret even for those not familiar with the academics of management. The lyrics focus on chosen parts of management and emphasize the message by practical examples. Of course we weren’t able to include every part of management history since it then would have ended in a whole full-length album or a complete symphony. The different perspectives chosen were those we thought best highlighting the views on how management has changed over time. As probably noticed while watching, the video includes a humoristic touch and this approach has also been incorporated when we chose which parts of management history to include. As for the visual, we have had one thought, to combine classic hip-hop video style with illustrations of the management routines described in the lyrics. This will further on contribute to this video being easier to comprehend. The classic hip-hop approach applied to 5 white guys in shiny Adidas uniforms will hopefully even further lighten up the heavy theories described in the lyrics.
It’s a commonly shared opinion among the five of us, this course verifying management as a broad concept hard to put a single definition on, and that management can be looked at through many different perspectives. But whichever perspective chosen one fact remains, it’s essential you can communicate your ideas by taking your target group’s own “language” into account, thus making the message more easy to comprehend. With this communicative perspective in focus, one of the major purposes we hope this video to fulfill is reaching another audience than just academicians. Being more precise, we want to show chosen parts and angels of management for an audience we believe less likely running in to these academic routines of management. Hoping this will encourage a discussion about different management perspectives where it might not have happened otherwise. This in mind makes it quite obvious it’s not possible doing an abstract documentary, focusing on eventual similarities between Foucault’s views on management’s episteme and Poppers methodological induction. To reach an audience less familiar with this very subject, you have to communicate in a way they understand and feel comfortable with. Here you can see strong connections to managing a company or an organization; even if you have the best strategies and the coolest management models, it’s useless if you’re not able to communicate them properly. Hence, one of the most essential aspects of management is making everyone understand where to go and which way to take. Academic routines can often seem boring for the “big mass” and we believe a humoristic approach could make the management history more interesting for our very target group. Besides the major point of the movie, i.e. communicating management theory in a new way to a new target group, it also highlights the importance of communication within the fields of management.
Hip-hop has for a long time been a tool for afro-American middle and lower class to communicate what life is all about, especially showing how the situations in some of the poorer suburbs of USA are experienced from within. We thought it a good idea taking this approach and communicating management through it, thus taking academic teaching to a completely new level; reaching people that so far have been overlooked when it comes to terms of distributing management theory.
Another reason we chose producing a hip-hop video are due to our beliefs that the management enclosing this task would be quite interesting. The management needed by us arranging and getting acceptance for the field trips to the studio and Bentleys were more demanding than we at first thought, not to mention persuading the Bentley manager to actually be a part of the video. The fact this being a zero budget production made it complicated finding a professional singer for the chorus, and even more finding a studio with someone helping us producing. There have been other suggestions of what to include in the video, which we after some time realized weren’t doable, but before accepting this we all pushed our personal connections to the limit. Another management issue we faced was to hype this project; we believed creating this hype could lead to mouth-to-mouth marketing, consequently resulting in many “hits” on Youtube. This reasoning is based on what Mr. Sköld observed in his truck-designing thesis. Sköld found out that what’s motivating truck drivers designing and “pimping” their trucks were not the actual result, but the hype of how great their next truck would be. We applied similar logic, if we get the buzz about this video going, people would build up expectations, thus urging them to see it. Hopefully, the viewers will be more satisfied after watching the video than the truck drivers were after designing the next truck.
Even before giving birth to the hip-hop idea we all agreed on doing a fun project, thus making us more committed to the task and able to produce something to be proud of. Not saying the other groups haven’t had fun, but we believe it fair to say we’re having the very most of it producing this video. Every time leaving for the studio or to shoot new scenes, the mood was at top. This might actually be the most fun we ever had at our soon to be four years at KTH. Practicing what’s been taught in theory is very valuable and it complements the teaching process satisfyingly, and if we, the students, are to be properly prepared for what’s facing us when graduated, we should definitely have more project-based learning implemented in our education.
At the beginning we had a totally different, much more academic approach. But it didn’t feel right; it became so bookish and scholastic. Then, after reflecting over the Youtube clip ‘Consulting paradise’, the hip-hop idea was born. Suddenly we were all engaged to the utmost, and the ideas were gushing. Thus confirming what’s written above, i.e. how important it is having fun, and how much better one then can make the result.
During this course we’ve been taught seeing management from several perspectives, and different models and relevant management history have been discussed during the lectures. Now the course ending, we reflect upon what we learned and how. The most learning took place during the project, managing five different minds wanting the same thing but each in their own splendid way. The models and historical perspectives are of course interesting but learning by doing is, as commonly known, the best way to learn something new.
During the project it’s been necessary for us doing further research about the different models and persons mentioned in the lyrics. Since we had to summarize and criticize them in just a few lines, understanding what they were all about was essential.
This project has indeed made the five of us, if possible, even closer. Even though the video has been ready for a while, we get together more often than before, and just ‘chilling’ which is enjoyable. It appears the kind of ‘Fun Management’ practiced by us during this project has been very successful. It is easier to work hard if you really enjoy what you are doing. Perhaps this is the title of the next Business Bestseller from KTH: ‘Fun Management – Why and how you want to do what you do’.
Considering further releases from Snowflake Productions is not unthinkable!
Sköld David, 2008, ”Behind the Green Paint: The Perverse Core of the Aesthetic Economy”, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
Lyrics:
Management, Here I come, You can’t hide,
Gonna find you and understand you.
Management, Here I come, You can’t hide,
Gonna define you, and start consulting.
If we look back in time, hierarchy’s the way,
Everyone that works has a boss to obey.
This will ensure total control,
But that’s not how to roll!
‘Cause when the CEO comes down to the floor,
What’s he really looking for?
Everyone hides all the stuff that looks bad,
The CEO is still glad.
Taylors rhyme, specialization’s fine,
Scientific management is worth the dime.
Robots never take a leak, they don’t even sleep,
Emotion’s overrated human sissies just weep.
But robots can’t create, fuckers work to late,
Smash them to pieces and off to China State.
People that work need different things,
Maybe fly with their own wings.
Management, Here I come, You can’t hide,
Gonna find you and understand you.
Management, Here I come, You can’t hide,
Gonna define you, and start consulting.
You know the Hawthorne studies they made?
Change motivates people – not what they’re paid,
They wanted to know which way to go.
To make workers work their best in the flow,
Such a little thing as illumination change.
made a big difference – but it ain’t so strange.
For people to feel noticed and treated right,
you might only have to lower the light.
That’s right – Remember Core Competence,
Just thinking ’bout the products is nonsense.
Look inside the company see what we do best,
That, my friend, is the most important quest.
Build your company based on this,
And no opportunity you’ll ever miss.
Prahalad, Hamel, Leonard-Barton were correct,
Upon the Core Competence we must reflect.
Management, Here I come, You can’t hide,
Gonna find you and understand you.
Management, Here I come, You can’t hide,
Gonna define you, and start consulting.
You can’t learn it all,
From the models yeah,
oh baby hey baby
Gotta combine them all oh yeah.
Boston Ma-atrix, Seven S, Outsource, Benchmarking,
Six, Sigma,
User Innovation, oh yeah.
We need to focus more on the people,
Their interaction is the company’s steeple.
Networking more important than feedback,
You should not… Yo, bring the beat back.
you should not stop worrying about sales rather,
you should start focusing on one another.
people should communicate as much they want,
and they won’t ever feel treated nonchalant.
Yo, so we talked about a thousand ways,
to look at management, and what they say.
Taylor, Mintzberg, Drucker, Hamel, Porter, Kotler, Prahalad, Dunbar,
Does anyone care who they are?
Can’t be defined, management’s too wide,
Look at those guys they already tried.
Management’s hard to put a finger on,
It’s what these guys make their money from.
Management, Here I come, You can’t hide,
Gonna find you and understand you.
Management, Here I come, You can’t hide,
Gonna define you, and start consulting.
What is management?
I have been thinking about whether management exists in everything, if it does everything would be a question about good or bad management. Right know for example if we look at Iceland they must have had a bad management to end up where they are today. To be fair maybe we should not give them the whole blame for ending up with like they did since the market is a global one. But the question of blame is not as important as the question on how to get out of the financial crisis. As discussed before at this blog it might not exist a finished recipe of management for how it should be used. So you have to use ad-hoc solutions when a new situation arrives. But this situation is a good example for when good management is needed but by who? Who should try to solve this problem, is it a management expert, a economist or a politician? I don’t know but my feeling is that the most rational is that they all are needed to put together a god strategy together. To put specialists from many different fields together to come up with a solution might be the best way to go. The problem in the case of Iceland is that they need a solution quite soon. The real management task therefore to balance the need of coordination and the need for a quick strategy. So in this case management could be said to be about coordination and leadership.
American election
Since I am interested in politics I have reading quite a bit about the American election. When reading about the election one thing that strikes me is the importance of “external” opinion builders like evening show hosts and even bloggers or volunteers. Today it’s quite easy even for the everyday person to spread your opinion especially through internet where for example a blog can be started in less than 5 minutes. This is something that the brains behind the campaigns have understood. Not only have they understood that it is important to try to get them on your side but it’s also the importance of getting feedback on how their politics are perceived and what the public opinion believe to be important questions. This is new because before the views of average Joe voter have always been filtered and delayed through a research institute. The improvement from this is that campaigns can be faster to react to public opinions and also that public opinion in a more direct way can influence the policies of the candidates.
One other implication of blogging is that the original message is redesigned at these blogs and might in the end not be that similar to what was intended. Which is a further reason for the campaign staff to follow the trends on blogs to make sure that there message is not misinterpreted.
All this have made people outside the campaigns more important for developing the campaigns. Maybe companies could learn from this the importance of the people outside in forming their product even if it doesn’t look like that at first glance?
Here is a simplified sketch of the difference of the two ways.
Old way of campaigning slow if any feedback
A more modern view of how to form a political message.
Fast to scout the attitudes and reforming the message
Thoughts about Mastering the Case Interview and Case in Point
I have read through and spent some thoughts about the books Mastering the Case Interview by Alexander Chernev of Kellogg School of Management but also Case in Point by Marc P. Cosentino at Harvard Business School. These books are both books about how to do well in an interview and especially an interview at a management consulting firm or similar. What’s is characteristic about these interviews in these industry is that it often involves a case solving part where the interviewee is suppose to show his or her ability to “solve” and reflect around a business problem. Here I will discuss a few thoughts about these books solution to the cases.
When reading through these books it’s hard not to see how similar they are in many parts. The feeling I get is that Mastering the Case Interview came out as an answer to Case in Point to show that Harvard is not the only school that can teach you to pass the interviews to the job that you want. These similarities make it even more interesting to find and discuss the differences but also to draw conclusions about the similarities.
One characteristic of popular management books is the exaggerated confidence that they present their theory which is quite different from the more widespread self-criticism you could find in a academic report. Oversimplified catch phrases like “how to succeed” or “the 10 steps to …” are common and make me see parallels with magazines or evening papers. These books are somewhere in between the two extremes of popular management books and academic report but leaning more towards the first of these buckets.
In Mastering the Case Interview Chernev presents an extraordinary skill of making up names and acronyms for almost everything he talks about, from how to present yourself to how to reason around any business problem. This might be an easy way to get his “frameworks” to seem more established and fancy or maybe to make them more easy to remember. The later would be counteracted by the cheer volume of them which just makes them confusing.
In Case in Point we are presented to The Ivy Case System© which is the process that the book is centered around. By learning this process you should be prepared to tackle almost any case that is thrown at you during the interviews. What is really interesting about this system is the simplicity of it. One might figure that to “crack” a complex business problem you will need complex frameworks and models but the authors would not agree. It is the simplicity that makes it practical to use. That Chernev has a similar view can be seen in his approach also is a quite simple one and that he in just a few pages walks through the management models that he believe is needed. Both of them agree that simplicity of frameworks makes them more useful and that the trick is to know when to use them and when not to use them in the end the frameworks are there to help your reasoning. One might think that this is not so strange since an interview is only an interview and not the real deal. But I believe otherwise, even when “solving” real business cases a complex framework won’t help you a more than a simple one. This since any real business case is so complex and with so many different unknown variables that the exact outcome can never be determined anyway which makes a complex framework just more time consuming. Thus I like these books focus on the practical rather then what the exactness.
I don’t necessarily agree that the systems advocated in these books are the answer to any kind of case. Since business problems can be of a wide range of characteristics but also that the people using these systems are different. I also think that the fact that the two systems have sliced and diced the solution framework in quite different ways supports my view that no one solution is the best one every time. At the same time I can understand the quest for finding the perfect system that explain it all like the physicist is trying to find one model to explain and unite the physics behind the smallest part of the universe to the biggest. Such structures appeals to most of us.
Even if I don’t believe any of these systems to be the solution to any problems I do believe that both of them are very good fundament from which to start from. My personal view is also that these books should not be used as manuals with an instruction on how to succeed but rather as a help to form your own way of reasoning without being limited by someone else’s views. One other thing to remember is, as Chernev actually points out, that companies are not looking for people that can memorize a number of solutions rather they are looking for people understanding the logic behind. Therefore it’s is more important to try to figure out what is unique with a particular case rather than looking for what is as “mainstream”. In the end practice is what makes the difference
More lyrics
The latest text update!
[Cissi]
Management, Here I come, You can’t hide
Gonna find you and understand you
Management, Here I come, You can’t hide
(Gonna) define you and start consulting
[Daniel]
If we look back in time, hierarchy’s the way
Everyone that works has a boss to obey
This will ensure total control
But that’s not how to roll!
‘Cause when the CEO comes down to the floor
What’s he really looking for?
Everyone hides all the stuff that looks bad (Throw away a box labeled “Mistakes”)
The CEO is still glad
[1. Niclas 2. Henrik]
Taylors rhyme specialization’s fine
Scientific management is worth the dime
Robots never take a leak, they don’t even sleep
Emotion’s overrated, human sissies just weep
But robots can’t create, fuckers work to late
Smash them to pieces and off to China State (twist a globe)
People that work need different things
Maybe fly with their own wings
[Cissi]
Management, Here I come, You can’t hide
Gonna find you and understand you
Management, Here I come, You can’t hide
(Gonna) define you and start consulting
[Niclas]
You know the Hawthorne studies they made?
Change motivates people – not what they’re paid
They wanted to know which way to go
To make workers work their best in the flow
Such a little thing as illumination change
made a big difference – but it ain’t so strange
For people to feel noticed and treated right
you might only have to lower the light
[Henrik]
That’s right – Remember Core Competence?
Just thinking ’bout the products is nonsense
Look inside the company see what we do best
That, my friend, is the most important quest
Build your company based on this
And no opportunity you’ll ever miss (Perhaps Yoda kan say this?)
Prahalad, Hamel, Leonard-Barton were correct
Upon the Core Competence we must reflect
[Cissi]
Management, Here I come, You can’t hide
Gonna find you and understand you
Management, Here I come, You can’t hide
(Gonna) define you and start consulting
[Cissi]
You can’t learn it all
From the models yeah oh baby hey baby
Gotta combine them all oh yeah
Boston Ma-atrix
Seven S, Outsource, Benchmarking, Six Sigma
User Innovation oh yeah
[Rasmus]
We need to focus more on the people
Their interaction is the company’s steeple
Networking more important than feedback
I’s not unim… Yo, bring the beat back (Here the beat is muted for a second)
you should not stop worrying about sales, rather
you should start focusing on one another
people should communicate as much they want
and they won’t ever feel treated nonchalant
[Fabian]
Yo, so we talked about a thousand ways
to look at management, and what they say
Taylor, Mintzberg, Drucker, Hamel, Porter, Kotler, Prahalad, Dunbar
Does anyone care who they are?
Can’t be defined, management’s too wide
Look at those guys they already tried (PAUS)
Management’s hard to put a finger on
It’s what these guys make their money from
First draft of song lyrics
Management, Here I come, You can’t hide
Gonna find you and understand you
Management, Here I come, You can’t hide
Gonna define you and take you public (sell to McKinsey) (start consulting)
If we look back in time, hierarchy’s the way
Everyone that works has a boss to obey
This will ensure total control
But that’s not how to roll!
‘Cause when the CEO comes down to the floor
What’s he really looking for?
Everyone hides all the stuff that looks bad (Daniels roliga videotanke)
The CEO is still glad
Taylors rhyme specialization’s fine
Scientific management is the shit, big time (byta ut “the shit big time” mot worth the dime)
Robots don’t take a leak, they don’t even sleep
Emotion’s overrated, human pussies just weep
But robots can’t create, fuckers work to late
Smash them to pieces and off to China State
Group meeting
For the meeting today we will meet at Niclas apartment at 1830 today. See you there.
The Shawshank Redemption
The Shawshank Redemption from 1994 is one of the best movies to this date according to me and many with me. In this analysis I have focused on the management and the guards and not so much on the plot of the movie. For you who have not yet seen the movie here is a short sum up:
Andy Dufresne is a successful banker who gets accused and sentences to double lifetime for the murder of his wife and is sent to Shawshank Prison. After a rough start he gains respect from his fellow inmates. Before long the warden finds out about his financial knowledge and uses his expertise for his personal gain…
Here is a fun hip hop sum up:
http://hotair.com/archives/2007/02/10/video-the-shawshank-redemption-hip-hop-remix/
In one of the first scenes after Andy arrives at the prison shows the captain of the guard brutally abuses one of the inmates to death while the other guards just stand there watching. How can this be? There are many reasons for this but the three most important ones is the manager, the organization and finally the walls.
In charge at Shawshank is Warden Norton who also is the only manager at the prison (at least that can be seen in the movie). Even if middle management surly exists somewhere I am not sure that they can be considered managers because of their lack of power. Therefore he can run the prison pretty much as he himself pleases. He identifies himself with the prison and his way of viewing things is that the convicted felons are sent “to him” not to the prison. Even if he says this with disgust he at the same time makes it clear that he owns the prisoners as of that they came inside the walls to that they leave the again. This has the consequence that everyone inside that prison is worth as much as they are worth to the warden. For example Andy’s financial knowledge is worth more than Tommy’s life so when Warden Norton needs to choose the answer is not too hard. To further emphasize this he even creating his own “slave workforce” out of the prisoners for the benefit of himself. For him a prison has one objective to society and that is to keep the dangerous criminals looked away to the lowest cost to society. This is a very resource based view of running things; he needs a high wall a couple of guards and since everything is working nothing needs to be changed. That this view leads to a lack of change is clear since the prison and the routines are identical during the 20 years that Andy is imprisoned. A comparison could be made to companies acting on a market without competition and without the threat of competitors entering anytime soon also might have a hard time to motivate development. From all this it is fair to wonder if he really is the right man for the position as warden of a prison when it’s clear that he put no value to the welfare or “rehabilitation” of the inmates. The filmmakers make their position clear: the warden is more of a criminal then any of the inmates. It is also interesting to see how the filmmakers use his disintegration towards a more and more corrupt man to show the dangers of too much power.
The structure of the prison is very army like with a strict discipline and hierarchy. This structure suits the warden perfect. Inside the walls he is king and no state observatory board can be seen. A parallel can be drawn to when a CEO makes a visit to a factory and everything is cleaned and set in perfect order instead of showing the reality. I guess that the politicians and the voters see the problem with criminals as solved when they are caught and sentenced to jail. If they don’t ask about what is going on inside they don’t have to care about any problems. This works something like “someone-else-problem-beam” from the Douglas Adams “hitchhikers guide to the galaxy”. Below the warden is the brutal captain Hadley who is the one responsible for the prisoners and below him is the rest of the guard. The way the structure and the “company” culture are set up there is no acceptance for questioning your superiors. Therefore we can see the guards standing by without interfering even when they show signs of disapproval. To judge the guards as cowards is not as easy as it first might seem since it’s hard to go against the custom and culture but still you must always be held responsible to some degree even if this foremost is a management problem. Structures where no criticism and no creativity exist will not be very good at developing or improving and thus will be stuck in the same routines. Whether this structure is something that is deeply rooted in people’s minds of how a prison should be run or if this is warden Norton’s own structure is hard to say.
The third thing that I think have a big effect on the behavior of the guard is the walls. Walls don’t just make sure to keep the inmates inside the prison but more importantly make sure to keep the world around the prison away. This way the walls acts like a border between two worlds where your doings on one side won’t affect the other world. What’s not acceptable behavior in the outside world might be perfectly fine for you inside. Hence it’s quite easy for the management to form the ways things are done at this facility. This isolated world can be compared to the one created by William Golding in his book lord of the flies where the isolated people also creates a community on a isolated island based on values quite different from the world they come from. In the film ending it’s quite obvious that captain Hadley is chocked when the police comes and arrests him, which shows just how hard it is for him to understand that the laws applies inside their small world as well. Here the film have the outside world comes in as a knight in shining armor to set things right so that the audience get their regular moralizing lectures and a happy ending. But the outside world did keep their eyes closed as long as possible and not until the fact landed on their breakfast table did they act and no one knows if anything changed after warden Norton disappeared, maybe it’s business as usual the next day.
A Japanese solution
In management there is often more than one way to solve a problem. Since we like to work with case studies let me give you an example. Say we have a city with 8.5 million people, let’s call this city Tokyo. In this city there is a lot of people that need to travel to and from work every day and they can’t fit into the subway trains. What do you do? To add an extra dimension say we also like to put more people into work.
Build longer trains? More frequent trains? Other solutions…
Here is the Japanese solution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emeCyuF39No
M3T Crew 
